332 



THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY 



Whenever a new disease, a new fungus, or a new 

 ravaging insect appears, the first step toward conquer- 

 ing it is for the scientists at the Experiment Stations 

 to study its "life history." When they know how it 

 looks, how it develops, and what it does, they are not 

 Yankees if they do not find some way to circumvent 

 it. I remember what a matter of life and death the 

 first appearance of the potato beetle was to our farmers. 

 People feared that we could never again raise potatoes 

 in this country. Many farmers came near starvation, 

 on the newly broken lands of the frontier. It was a 

 black, black outlook. But the Yankee came out atop, 

 as usual. It is not for nothing that " when he under- 

 takes it, he'll make tJie thing, and the machine that 

 makes it!" At the present time, the farmer calmly 

 reckons how much Paris green or arsenate of lead or 

 patent mixture he will need wherewith to spray his 

 potato patch, buys it, apphes it, and sleeps the sleep 

 of the man who has done his duty, and who need not 

 fear the result. 



When blackhead appeared, our scientists began to 

 probe into its life history. They have found out much. 

 They have named the germ and have given it a " bad 

 name " in two senses. They have discovered its cousin- 

 ship to the small Mephistopheles that causes white 

 diarrhoea, at least one form of him. (They say there 

 are two, or more.) 



The conviction is ga-ining ground that, no matter 

 what the disease, or the victim, — whether it be man, or 

 bird, or beast of the field, — the resistance which is pres- 

 ent, or which may be developed in the larger organism 

 attacked by the swarming myriads of disease germs, 



